Factors that Lead to ROC

Social Work Background

I became a social worker out of college because I had a passion for helping people, especially people who were underprivileged. I quickly learned that I could either spend my time concerned about potential government cutbacks, politicians that didn’t seem to care, the unfairness of the system and many other similar things or I could take what I had, roll up my sleeves and go to work. Soon I learned that the most success that I experienced came from giving messages to people that were empowering versus messages that only sympathized with their situation at hand. I learned that actually working one-on-one with people in a caring manner leads to progress versus staying stuck in the rhetoric stage of wanting to help, but never getting beyond how great the challenges were. These were lessons that I took with me and used in my personal life, both as a parent and as a volunteer.

Parenting

My years as a parent taught me even more lessons. No matter how hard I tried to be an excellent parent, I made mistakes. It definitely is the kind of job where you get better after first hand experience. During my kids-at-home parenting years I was heavily involved in the schools trying to support the staff and help improve the programs where I felt they needed improvement. I was involved with the anti-drug and alcohol programs at the school and helped start new ones through a parenting group called PIN (Parent Information Network). During my twelve years with PIN, I became aware of all the negative influences there were in our culture for kids of all ages. In addition to having a passion for promoting good parenting, I became passionate about the need for our institutions and industries that influence kids to better support kids and parents. I felt parents were facing an uphill battle against many negative influences in our culture to the point where they were giving up right and left. As I heard Hollywood spokes people blame parents for the situation, I knew in my heart that although many parents needed to take their responsibilities more seriously, the primary problem was with industries like Hollywood, the Entertainment Industry and Advertising Industry. Unlike the days when television programs, movies, schools, community businesses and many other institutions and industries were all on the same page with parents reinforcing good character, children were now getting mixed messages about who they should be. I knew something needed to be done, but I felt so powerless.

Mentoring

Right around the time my daughter was 12, I decided to go outside my comfort zone and mentor a child through Save Our Youth, a great Denver organization that can be found at: www.saveouryouth.org. Given the choice of a sweet little 12 year-old girl who desperately wanted a mentor or an angry, challenging 12-year old who was mad at most adults in her life, I chose the challenging child, Irene. Challenging was an understatement, but somehow we connected quickly and I saw something in her heart that she didn’t let a lot of people see. I set boundaries so I did not become overwhelmed and so she did not become dependent on me. Over this period of time, I deepened my understanding of what helps people and what hinders them from becoming independent functioning adults. I increased my passion for empowering Irene, rather than increasing her dependence on programs and other people, even though the latter was often the easiest and “felt good” in the short run. When you think back on positive changes in your life, I bet most of you can point to people who cared about you or influenced you in some powerful way. That is what mentoring is all about. I was not equipped to be a mentor, but there were people who helped me. I realized through the process that the two things that mattered the most were that I cared about Irene and that she could count on me to do what I said I would do. I believe that nothing on earth can change lives as much as one-on-one caring relationships can.

Dennis Prager Radio Show

Somewhere starting in 2000, I started listening to Dennis Prager (a national conservative radio talk show host). I have been a deep thinker for as long as I can remember so this was the perfect show for me. It wasn’t a conservative talk radio show without a lot of drama or with a host that spewed his points of view for showmanship and for people’s reactions. This was a respectful, thoughtful show that always made me think. Mr. Prager’s motto was “first tell the truth, then state your opinion” and he still holds true to that motto today. (Go to www.pragerradio.com to see for yourself.) My respect grew for Dennis Prager the more that I listened to him, to the point that eventually I wanted to meet other people who enjoyed him as well because I knew I would find people of character that liked to think and reason and debate. In this politically correct environment we have created for ourselves, respectful and honest debating is almost becoming a thing of the past. In the summer of 2007 I called the Prager show one day and suggested that we start Prager groups throughout the country and a few months later, our Denver Prager group was up and running with an outstanding and committed leader. By 2008, I had new friends that I connected with, who I first turned to help me start ROC. At least 20 people came on board because of their similar passions.

Janet Jackson Story

For those of you too young or too old to remember, in February of 2004, Janet Jackson was performing at the XXXVIII Super Bowl game in Houston, Texas and decided that she would lower the bar in our culture one more notch (as many performers do all of the time in place of creativity).  Ms. Jackson decided to drop part of her outfit in the middle of her performance during her half time performance.  Well, the reaction of America was outstanding.   People were outraged.  540,000 Americans took the time to let the FCC know what they thought of that.  (You can read about the story at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_XXXVIII_halftime_show_controversy  It was an eye opener for me because it was the first time that I realized that the large majority that I knew was out there were as concerned as I was about our culture and could actually mobilize to make a difference for the betterment of our culture.  Most people I knew, who were concerned about our negative cultural trends, felt powerless going up against Hollywood, the Entertainment Industries, the Advertising Industry and the News Media.  It felt great to see average Americans standing up to the powerful and positively impacting this one situation.  I felt hope for the first time.

Happy Days Reunion Show

In the late 90’s I already knew in my heart the truth about how much Hollywood, the Entertainment Industry, the Advertising Industry and even the News Media were negatively influencing our kids, but I couldn’t validate what I knew to be true until February of 2005.  I happened upon on a 2-hour special reunion show for the old sitcom,  Happy Days.  During the special, the writers and producers talked about some old episodes of Happy Days and how they got some of their material for story lines.  They mentioned that one time the National Library Association came to them and said that kids in America weren’t reading as much anymore and weren’t even getting library cards and checking out library books.  They asked if the Happy Days writers would consider writing into one of their story lines where Fonzie (Henry Winkler) would get a library card and talk about how cool it was to read.  I became excited, angry and deeply saddened all at the same time about what came next on this reunion show.  The person being interviewed said that the National Library Association reported that in just a few short months, the number of kids that got library cards went up 500% across the country (http://www.uncp.edu/news/2002/henry_winkler_2.htm).    I was excited because I knew this would help prove what I had been saying for so many years, that television had a tremendous influence on our kids.  I was angry because it also meant that people knew about this influence and still decided to produce trash that our kids would see.  I was sad because our culture was continuing to slide and nothing was being done about it.  The message that kept coming from experts in Hollywood (and still does) was that “parents are primarily responsible for what their kids watch on TV and they just need to turn programs off if they don’t want their kids watching them”.   I knew this message was either extremely naïve or was being said to give adults in the industry free reign to produce what they want to produce without feeling guilty.  In truth, the negative influences are everywhere in the Media and dominate our culture, so unless they wanted to lock their child in their home and watch their every move with a quick acting remote control in their hands, of course parents can’t prevent their kids from being exposed to all the “SMUT” (Sexual Material Unacceptable for Teens) that is out there. I knew somehow the silent majority needed to be heard as they were after the Janet Jackson incident.

My Faith

Around 2002 my faith in God began to take a turn.  (“Why the Body, Mind and Spirit Approach to ROC”).  As early as 2005, I was beginning to hear my minister’s clear messages that God wanted us to step out of our comfort zone, use our talents and passions and do something meaningful with our lives serving His people and ultimately serving Him.  I thought and prayed and prayed and thought for four years about ROC.  I woke up most mornings prayerfully considering messages and writing them on a pad of paper in case I ever did start ROC.  At the same time, I became closer to people at my church through Bible studies and through a group trip to Israel. I was increasingly becoming more concerned about what was happening in our culture, what was happening in our families and what was happening with our politics. I feared that we were slowly, as a nation, turning our backs on the values that our country was founded upon. Most importantly, I felt that we were collectively, as a nation, turning our backs on God and seldom looking to Him for Truth and Wisdom anymore. God had always been at the foundation of our nation and we were now replacing Him with so many other things. Slowing, but surely, I was getting the message that I, along with other fellow Christians and patriots, needed to jump in and start ROC. One of my friends at church suggested that I assemble a ROC prayer team. Friends jumped on board and the rest is history. The people who connected with me concerning ROC have been amazing. They are people from the Colorado Dennis Prager group, friends from Greenwood Community church, old neighborhood friends and even complete strangers. We came together because of our common values and a strong passion for our country.

Note 1:  Above are the main experiences that contributed to my interest in starting ROC, but it wouldn’t have been able to happen had it not been for my wonderful husband who decided to fund ROC and for the many ROC volunteers who have stepped forward to offer their time and talents. (See: ROC Volunteers and Supporters). I would also like to thank the Individuals Who Inspired ROC.

Note 2:  Another dream that I have in the future is to use the proceeds from ROC to start Critical Thinking Classes (non-political and non- religious) for middle and high school age students. It was my intention to make ROC the least political as possible without compromising my beliefs. I have stayed away from political issues for that reason. However, I am well aware of the current situation that our country faces with the unprecedented politicizing of almost every issue imaginable. I have a real desire to see respectful debate return to our country and for people to put truth before their agendas. If we could understand each other better, perhaps we could find more common ground than we currently have. We need to work backwards. If differing sides would be honest and clear about what their desired outcomes were for our country before debating solutions to our problems, we might be able to make some progress. How can we come together around solutions if we’re not even sure what we are shooting for in regards to outcomes? (See Political Stereotypes and Political Differences).